Religiosity and spirituality related to mental and physical health

A person’s religious habits and spirituality predicts health outcomes after a collective traumatic event like September 11th, according to researchers. The researchers gathered information from 890 adults before September 11th. The health, religiosity and spirituality was examined six times over a period of three years.

“Across that time span, with numerous controls, religiosity and spirituality were found to be independently and differentially related to mental and physical health, so they are not interchangeable indices of religion,” said researcher Michael J. Poulin of the University of Buffalo.

Religious people appeared to have a higher positive attitude and lower risk of new mental problems. Spiritual people seemed to have a higher positive attitude and a lower instance of new physical infections.